Install Tomorrow's Technologies in Today's Ubuntu 13.04

Users can enjoy the Smart Scope project in Ubuntu 13.04, ahead of time

Ubuntu 13.04 desktop

Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) is now out, but it has been release without an important update for Unity, which didn’t made the cut before the launch day.

The biggest feature of Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) should have been the Smart Scopes, a collection of scopes for Unity (like the existing Music, Video, and so on). The developers have decided that this feature is not ready, and Ubuntu 13.04 has been skipped.

The good news is that Canonical will allow users to install the Smart Scopes in Ubuntu 13.04, with the help of a PPA. Just enter the following commands in a terminal near you. This is a version that gets updated very often and it can break your Ubuntu installation.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-unity/experimental-prevalidation

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install unity-lens-* unity-scope-*

The second PPA provided by Ubuntu is a little more stable, but it’s still a development version.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-unity/experimental-certified

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install unity-lens-* unity-scope-*

Smart Scopes are here to stay and they will be integrated in Ubuntu 13.10, by default.